Gratitude

I’ve been fascinated with the idea of gratitude lately.  It’s such a simple concept on the surface. My earliest memories include singing “Give said the little stream” in the children’s Sunday school at my church.  Every meal we quickly raced through the prayer with a quick thanks, not wanting to let the prayer go long for fear our food would go cold.

Gratitude was simply a courtesy, something to express because it’s the polite thing to do.  Actually feeling it in the moment was not an important part of the equation. Thank you was somewhat hollow.

I’m a bit surprised (maybe even a little disappointed) as I contemplate my childhood memories.  Our family was pretty typical in that we didn’t have a fancy life, but we had what we needed.   My life was far from perfect, but I certainly had a life that should warrant a steady stream of gratitude…

I didn’t really grasp the power of gratitude until I was in my 20’s.  I was reeling in anxiety and mild depression in the aftermath of sexual abuse that had happened to me years earlier.  My life was consumed with memories, fears, sadness, and confusion.

At the that time in my life I was an avid Oprah Winfrey viewer (I really miss that show!) and happened to catch an episode that would teach me something vitally important.  I don’t remember the details of the episode but she introduced something to the audience called a “Gratitude Journal”.  It was something she had tried herself and swore that it had profoundly impacted her life for good.  She explained that you simply write 5 things in a journal every day that you are grateful for.  If you don’t feel like it, you do it anyway.  If you can only think of 3, you’d better sit there and think of two more. It spoke to me.  I could try this.  I needed help and the magic that she seemed to experience from this simple practice.

I bought myself a beautiful little journal and started.  Some days it was easy to grab my journal and write gratitudes, others were so dark and sad that I had to remind myself to just have faith in the process.  Those days my entries were simple… “The blue sky”, “I have food to eat”, “I watched my favorite show”, but the most curious began to happen. 

I started to feel happy.  I started to feel peace.

Writing these simple gratitudes seemed to bring an energy to my body that I hadn’t felt in what seemed a very long time.  I looked forward to my minute or two with my journal each night knowing that something was happening inside of me.  I could not explain it, but I could feel this subtle mystery.

I don’t have a strong memory of when I stopped using this journal, but one day I realized that I hadn’t written for awhile.  I paused and contemplated this.  I thought about where my soul had been when I had written in its first page – and where I was then.

I was a different person.  I was no longer living with anxiety and drepression.

Gratitude had changed my life.

I have never forgotten this lesson. There is a power in gratitude.  It holds it’s own life force that when we bring it into our lives, it has the power to heal.

Confessions and Cleaning Tips

Being part of an amazing blog requires pulling my weight and contributing regularly.  So in the spirit of being a team player I kindly volunteered to share a cleaning tip.  Cleaning tip.... how hard could that be? Seemed easy enough to pull together in the midst of getting back into the swing of things at my co-teaching job at the Montessori school.

So... cleaning tip... uh oh...     DO I HAVE ANY CLEANING TIPS?  I suddenly wasn't sure!  I'm going to put this out on the table right now, just get it over with, before I mislead a lot of people into thinking I've 'got it all together' (Ok, you wouldn't have thought that for long...)

I am NOT super mom.

I don't love to cook.

I hate crafts.

I get behind on laundry.

We're late for school more often than I'd like to admit..

and I really don't like to clean.

Don't get me wrong.  My house looks pretty nice in general... but behind closed doors I keep my dirty little secrets.

This is what the public sees:

But here's a look at my closet.  *gulp*

Yeah, a little inconsistent...

But hey, Maybe I'm a bit of a mess behind closed doors, but I still like to have a reasonably clean home.  I just don't want to spend all day at it and I don't want to spend a lot of money... on cleaning.  I'd rather spend my money on essential oils, now that's fun!

TODAY'S TIP:

I'm not sure I've ever met a person who loves to mop.  I REALLY don't like it, but I do have a lot of hard surfaces in my house so I really don't have a choice (except to hire a house cleaner, and that's just not in the cards yet).

Bottom line: It must be done. But I want it done FAST.

I created my own method to get this chore over with ASAP.  Secret:  This method is SO easy...you might not even mind mopping every day. Woah...  now I'm just getting carried away.

First thing, get a great cleaner concentrate. Always natural. My favorite is doTerra's OnGuard Cleaner concentrate because it uses the power of essential oils to clean and who doesn't love to finish mopping and have their house smell like cinnamon and grapefruit?  You can also use Dr. Bronners Cleaning concentrate you could wash your hair and then mop your floors with it.  Pretty safe if you ask me.  Another option that is natural and safe is Seventh Generation Cleaning concentrate.  Another one I'll recommend is My Cleaning Product: Neutrlizer.  If you have any questions about why I recommend these 3 options feel free to leave a comment of shoot me an email (lionessesatthegate@gmail.com)

Ok, next: Using an empty spray bottle fill an empty spray bottle 3/4 full of water and add 2-3 tablespoons of the concentrate. (There's no hard and fast rule to quantities)
Twist on sprayer top and shake gently.  Voila.  You've got a month's worth of mopping solution ready to go at all times!

Mini Tip: This same solution, if natural, can be used to clean all surfaces in your house from the floors to countertops. In fact, because this particular cleaner contains essential oils that will kill literally any germ, I use it to clean my bathrooms, kitchen countertops, floors, stove, sinks, showers, tubs, everything.

Mopping time.  Ok, simply spray the solution on the area you plan to mop!  Do it section by section if it's a big floor as it might start to dry out a little...

Then girl, you just go to town!  Using a microfiber push mop, saturate the pad in hot water, wring it out and you're ready to hit the floor.   Mop fast and furiously.  The point is to get it over with as soon as possible! When finished, rinse out the mop head, allow to air dry and just make sure you toss it in the washing machine every once in a while.

Woot Woot!  Mopping is over with!  Mostly painless right?  Feel free to celebrate by playing a little air guitar.

Now... if I could just work some magic in my closet...